Second on Huffington Post’s international expansion list, after its recent Canadian launch, will be a new UK site, now scheduled for launch on July 6.
Update: The site will be run by AOL’s UK portal editor-in-chief Carla Bevan, who joined from women’s mag Marie Claire last year.
Chris Wimpress, a former BBC Radio politics reporter and voiceover artist, has been hired as HuffPo’s UK politics editor.
“We are planning to launch in France after England (sic),” Huffington said at the Cannes Lions advertising festival (via The Drum). “Then we are going to announce the roll-out of other countries; Latin America, Australia, India.
“We have to be in 12 countries by the end of the year. We’ve already launched in Canada which has been a great success.”
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Wimpress claims to have signed “dozens” of bloggers, including liberal Kent politics blogger Daniel Furr
“It’s more than just a bureau but, in the first instance, news, politics and entertainment sections,” Wimpress tells paidContent:UK. “Lifestyle and other sections to follow in due course. We have a small team of journalists here in London producing our own stories and interviews, plus unpaid bloggers along the same lines as in the US.”
AOLs UK portal this week adopted AOL.com’s recent redesign, which supports its super-size Project Devil advertising format.